Overwatch’s newest hero will join the game next week.
Brigitte, Overwatch’s new tank-like support hero, will be added to Overwatch on March 20 across PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Blizzard announced her release date on Twitter earlier today.
“It takes a village to raise (and create) a hero,” Blizzard wrote. “Discover how lead character artist Ben Zhang and the team brought Overwatch’s latest support to life. Brigitte joins the fight: 3.20.18.”
Brigitte’s journey from supporting character to Overwatch hero is detailed in the Inside Overwatch video posted alongside the announcement. Zhang explains how the team landed on this particular iteration of Brigitte, noting that her design pulls influence from both Torbjörn and Reinhardt, her father and godfather, respectively.
We first saw Brigitte in Overwatch’s Dragon Slayer digital comic, which followed Reinhardt and Brigitte on their adventures together. Brigitte acted as Reinhardt’s squire for some time, repairing his armor instead of fighting alongside him.
Her origin story video, which debuted in late February, explained that she grew frustrated in watching the fight from afar; to truly protect her family and friends, Brigitte had to join the fight. That’s why she’s joining Overwatch now, alongside Reinhardt—the German tank that decided to answer Winston’s call in the Honor & Glory animated short.
Brigitte appeared in multiple comics and shorts alongside Reinhardt since Dragon Slayer, first in Reflections and later in Honor & Glory. Her appearance has changed a bit since her initial sighting in Dragon Slayer, but her core design remains true to who she was back then.
The Overwatch support has been in testing on the Overwatch PTR since Feb. 28. PC players with access to the test server have been able to try her out, but in just five days time, she’ll be playable across all systems.
We still don’t know a ton about Brigitte and her involvement with Overwatch the organization, but we expect Blizzard to give us more story as time moves on.
